A day without a woman: A letter to my daughter

Today on International Women’s Day or A day without a woman, I wanted to make sure you know what this day meant for mommy and my hopes for you in the future. Although this day hasn’t had as much attention in America until this year, International women’s day is actually an observed holiday in many other countries. This year with alot of yucky adult politics going on (that you need not worry your pretty little head about), the holiday was taken one step further and dubbed “A day without a woman,” where women were called upon to not go to work, not spend money unless its with a female owned business, and wear red in solidarity.

While mommy didn’t take off(I was just gone for week to marry daddy), I do plan on showing solidarity and doing everything else to bring awareness to what life would be like with out women. I wondered if anyone would be at your day care center today or if we would have to keep you home. You know why?…Only wonderful women work there….no men. Then I thought about what if you had a doctors appointment today? Your pediatrician is a women. We have so many wonderful women in our daily lives that make a huge impact and today is about the world reflecting on that also.
Some people have negative thoughts about today. “What rights don’t they have?” “That’s for privileged women who don’t have problems anyway.”

And they are free to think what ever they want but its important to know this day is different for every woman. There’s a female engineer out there, right now, who makes less money than her male coworker simply because she’s a woman. And maybe when you grow up, you’ll want to be an engineer and I want equality for you.

For mommy, I had to jump through hoops to get my breast pump covered by my insurance because unlike other countries, most modern women have to go back to work a short 12 weeks after having a baby. Some American women aren’t even able to take that much time off or able to keep their jobs after giving birth. When you came into this world, I wanted nothing more than to completely bond with you for as long as I could. Too bad this isn’t the U.K. where they offer almost a full year of paid maternity leave to allow full bonding time with new babies.

“A day isn’t going to make a difference in anything.” A day without a woman is more about awareness than action. We don’t find cures for cancer in October, right? No, we talk about the cause and ways to affect change and that’s what should happen today. Maybe that man who shows up to his office full of “chicks” will discover he’s the only one working today and has to carry the full workload by himself. Or maybe that store owner who always catcalls his female customers and behaves inappropriately with his younger female employees won’t have that attitude when he’s alone at work today with no patrons. And how about we also make it about appreciation for the woman and what she has done and is doing for the world. Lucky for us, daddy shows us everyday how he appreciates his ladies.

When you get older, I can’t wait to tell you how your teacher told me that even with you being the only little girl in the toddler class, you don’t take any crap from those little boys. I love that they told me you take charge and do your own thing in school(as much as a 16 month old can). I know there will be a time when you will have to look to me for strength and a model of what womanhood is supposed to be and my hope is that I will always be an example of what it is like to be a strong, loving, feminine, conquering woman. And my prayer is that you grow up to be that way also and don’t ever forget you can do anything in this world that you set your mind to and work hard for.